Construction Sequence - More photos of completed project to come soon!

Breaking Ground

The foundation has been dug!

During another round of harvesting, Patrick goes for the far-out cattails.

Thatcharama

We've been harvesting the last couple of weeks!
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Fallow Blog

I'm sorry that we have been so delinquent in our blogging. Here's a quick catch up of the last 3 months:

Early August - We submitted our design for the Sukkah City competition. We did not win but we now have the foundation design for our project (!)

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Late August - Another version of the comb structure submitted to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens for review. Some really great conversations with our structural engineer, Andy Greco of SDI.






September - We have been refining our structural design so that it is once again a self-supporting aggregated comb structure.









Otherwise we have been busy thatching harvesting! Stay tuned....

Actions and Reactions

Moving forward from a review, where we received many helpful comments from three practicing architects/educators, we decided to focus our designs by looking more closely at the actions and forces exerted onto different types of material in vernacular thatching. These actions (and their material and formal consequences) served as a springboard for us to reinterpret vernacular thatching methods to fit our own design and research goals.

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Taxonomy of Vernacular Thatch

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This taxonomy of vernacular thatch documents the structural components, techniques, and methods of application found in a variety of thatched roofs around the world. The research is presented in an exploded axon that describes the similar sequencing of layers found in most thatched roofs, beginning with the substructure and extending to the ridge and finish. The chart is a work in progress and is used as a visual reference of our ongoing research and as a design tool to help us think about the application of traditional thatching techniques to a modern design and context.

Initial research into thatching techniques led to a focus on the traditional roofs of northern England. The two types of thatching predominant in this area - Norfolk reed thatch and wheat straw thatch - are well documented both in literature and on the internet. An overview of the materials, tools, and methods used in these two types of roofs are organized and explained in the following pdf document.

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Further Studies in Building with Thatch

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Thatch as a Panel and Joint System:












Thatch as a Tensile Unit:








Thatch as a Masonry Unit: